Monism and Monotheism in Al-Ghazālī's Mishkāt Al-Anwār - A.Treiger

Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazālī's Mishkāt al-anwār / "‫الٲحديّة والتوحيد في "مشكاة الٲنور‬
‫للغزالي‬
Author(s): Alexander Treiger and ‫الكساندر تريغار‬
Source: Journal of Qur'anic Studies , 2007, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2007), pp. 1-27
Published by: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the Centre for Islamic Studies
at SOAS
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728234
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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazali's
Mishkdt al-anwar
Alexander Treiger
Yale University
It is appropriate to begin a study on the problem of Monism versus Monotheism in

Abu Hamid al-Ghazalf s (d. 505/1 111) thought by juxtaposing two passages from his
famous treatise Mishkdt al-anwar (The Niche of Lights') which is devoted to an
interpretation of the Light Verse (Q. 24:35) and of the Veils Hadith (to be discussed
below).1 As I will try to show, the two passages represent monistic and monotheistic
perspectives respectively.
For the purposes of the present study, the term 'monism' refers to the theory, put
forward by al-Ghazali in a number of contexts, that God is the only existent in
existence and the world, considered in itself, is 'sheer non-existence' (cadam mahd);
while 'monotheism' refers to the view that God is the one of the totality of existents
which is the source of existence for the rest of existents. The fundamental difference
between the two views lies in their respective assessments of God's granting
existence to what is other than He: the monistic paradigm views the granting of
existence as essentially virtual so that in the last analysis God alone exists, whereas
the monotheistic paradigm sees the granting of existence as real.2
Let us now turn to the passages in question.
Passage A: Mishkdt, Part 1, ??52-43
[?52] The entire world is permeated by external visual and internal

intellectual lights ... Lower [lights] emanate from one another the
way light emanates from a lamp [siraj, cf. Q. 24:35] ... [Similarly,]
higher [lights] are kindled from one another and arranged in a
hierarchy of stages (tartlb maqamat). The entire [hierarchy] ascends
to the 'Light of lights' - the [other lights'] first source and origin.
This [origin] is God the Exalted, alone, without a partner. Other
lights, by contrast, are borrowed (mustacara), the only real light
being His light. [Indeed,] everything is His light. Moreover, He is
everything. Moreover, nothing save He has a 'he-ness', except
metaphorically {la huwiyya li-ghayrihi ilia bVl-majaz).
[?53] Therefore, there is no light but His light, whereas other lights
are lights not in themselves but only with respect to {the face}4

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2 Journal of Qur'anic Studies
adjacent to Him. Indeed, the face of everything that has a face is

{directed}5 at Him and turns in His direction: Wherever you turn,
there is the Face of God (fa-aynamd tuwallu fa-thamma wajhu 'lldh)
[Q. 2:115]. Hence, there is no god but He, for the term 'god' denotes
that toward which face{s} turn with worship and godliness (ta3alluh)
... Moreover, just as there is no god but He, there is no he but He (la
huwa ilia huwa), for the term 'he' denotes that to which any kind of a
reference is made, and there can be no reference but to Him (la ishara
ilia ilayhi) ...
[?54] There can be no reference to the light of the sun but only to the
sun. Now, everything in existence relates to [God] as light relates to
the sun, in the plain terms of this image (fi zdhir al-mithdl). This is
why 'There is no god but God' is the tawhid of the commoners,
whereas 'There is no god but He' is the tawhid of the elect, since this
is more perfect, special, comprehensive, correct and precise. It is
more conducive to the holder [of this doctrine] entering into pure
singularity and sheer unity.
Passage B: Mishkdt, Part 2, ??11-15 6
[?11] Since the world of [divine] kingdom (cdlam al-malakut)

contains lofty, noble, luminous substances, called angels, from which
lights emanate upon human spirits - which is why they are [also]
called lords, God being the Lord of lords - and since [these
substances] have diverse degrees (mardtib) in luminosity, it is
appropriate that their image[s] (mithaluhd) in the world of
manifestation (cdlam al-shahdda) be the sun, the moon and the stars.
[?12] The traveller (salik) on the path first encounters the [angel]
whose rank is the rank of the stars (ma darajatuhu darajat al
kawdkib). He perceives the effluence of [this angel's] light and
realises that the entire lower world is under its control and the
effluence of its light... Hence he says, 'This is my Lord' [Q. 6:76].
[?13] Then when he clearly perceives what is above it, i.e. the [angel]
whose rank is the rank of the moon, he realises that the first [angel],
in comparison to what is above it, enters the setting place of
disappearance [lit. 'falling', huwiy]. Hence he says, 7 do not like
those that set (al-dfdin)' [Q. 6:76].
[?14] He ascends in the same manner till he reaches the [angel]
whose image (mithdl) is the sun. He sees that it is greater and higher
[than the previous angel], yet he sees that it [too] admits of having an
image through possessing a kind of analogous correspondence with it
(qdbil lil-mithal bi-nawc munasaba lahu macahu). However,

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazalf s Mishkat al-anwar 3
analogous correspondence with something imperfect is also an

imperfection and a 'setting' [uful, cf. Q. 6:76]. This is why he says: /
turn1 my face as a true believer8 to Him who created the heavens and
the earth {inni wajjahtu wajhiya Wlladhifatara'l-samawdti wa'l-arda
hanifan) [Q. 6:79].
Now, the meaning of 'He who' {alladhl) is an unspecific reference
{ishara mubhama) [whose referent] has no analogous correspondence
{la munasaba laha). Indeed, if someone were to ask, 'what is the
image {mithal) of the referent {mafhum) of 'He who", this question
would have no conceivable answer. This is why that which transcends
any analogous correspondence is the First, the Real (fa'l-mutanazzih
can kull munasaba huwa al-awwal al-haqq) ...
[?15] This is why when Pharaoh asked Moses, 'What is the Lord of
the worlds?' {md rabbul-calamin) [Q. 26:23] like someone who asks
about His whatness [or 'quiddity', mdhiyya], [Moses] responded to
him only through a reference to [God's] acts, for acts were more
manifest to the questioner. Thus [Moses] said [in response], "Lord of
the heavens and the earth' [Q. 26:24]. Pharaoh said to those around
him, 'Do you not hear [this]?' [Q. 26:25] like someone who is
accusing [Moses] of having begged the question about whatness.
[Finally, when] Moses said, 'Your Lord and the Lord of your
forefathers' [Q. 26:26], Pharaoh called him insane {nasabahu ild'l
juniin), for he was asking about image and whatness {al-mithdl wa'l
mdhiyya) while [Moses] was responding about acts. Thus [Pharaoh]
said, 'Indeed your messenger, who has been sent to you, is insane'
[Q. 26:27].
I am not aware of any study that puts these passages together. Yet they are so closely
related that they cannot be read in isolation from one another:
1. Both passages present a hierarchy of spiritual lights ascending to the First

Source - God - called in the first passage 'the Light of lights' {nur al-anwar)
and in the second, 'the Lord of lords' {rabb al-arbab) (note the similar
structure of both expressions). This terminology reflects the respective
Qur'anic substrata of these passages: the Light Verse in the first case, and a
number of ayas from Surat al-Ancdm (Q. 6:76-9), describing Abraham's ascent
to belief in God through a sequence of intermediary 'lords', in the second.
2. In both cases a Qur'anic aya about 'turning' or 'turning the face' is quoted. In
the first passage, this is Q. 2:115, Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God
(fa-aynamd tuwallu fa-thamma wajhulldh); in the second passage this is
Abraham's final confession, Q. 6:79, / turn my face as a true believer to Him
who created the heavens and the earth {inni wajjahtu wajhiya li 'lladhifatara 7
samdwdti wayl-arda hanifan).

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3. Furthermore - and this is especially striking - in both passages God is

designated by a pronoun: the masculine singular personal pronoun huwa in the
first passage and the masculine singular demonstrative pronoun alladhi in the
second.
4. In both cases, important conclusions are drawn from this designation, both
using the term 'reference' (ishdra). In the first case, God is said to be the only
'he' in existence, i.e. the only real existent, with the implication that there can
be no reference save to Him (la ishdra ilia ilayhi). In the second case, God is
said to be the 'He who' (alladhi), an unspecific reference (ishdra mubhama),
with the implication that God can have no analogous correspondence
(mundsaba)?
5. Finally and most significantly, there are important philosophical terms
'hidden' in each of the passages. In Passage A, this is the term huwiyya,
translated above as 'he-ness' but also meaning 'existence'.10 In Passage B, this
is the term mahiyya, 'whatness' or quiddity, around which al-Ghazalf s
interpretation of the Qur'anic dialogue between Moses and Pharaoh revolves
(Q. 26:23-7).11
What I wish to suggest at this point is that the two passages reflect two distinct
themes or perspectives present in the Mishkdt and in al-Ghazalf s theology in
general. The first perspective can be described as monistic; the second, as
monotheistic. Indeed, according to the first passage, God is the only true existent, the
other existents possessing only borrowed and metaphorical existence - hence
monism. According to the second passage, by contrast, God is the Lord and Creator
(/ turn my face as a true believer to Him who created the heavens and the earth) and
while the divinity of the intermediary 'lords' is rejected their existence is never
denied - hence monotheism.
What I propose to do in the following discussion is to consider the two perspectives

separately, using especially the Mishkdt but also other works of al-Ghazali, in Arabic
and Persian, and to examine how these perspectives unfold and interrelate.
Monotheism: Commentary on Passage A
Let us start with Passage A and with the monistic perspective. As stated above, the
term monism refers to the view - put forward by al-Ghazali in a number of contexts
in several works - that 'There is nothing in existence save God' (laysa fi'l-wujud
illalldh)11 and that the world is 'sheer non-existence' (cadam mahd).13
The theme of God as the only true existent is central to al-Ghazalf s metaphysics. It
occurs, most famously, as the highest stage of professing God's oneness, tawhid.14 In
the Mishkdt itself, as we have seen toward the end of Passage A, al-Ghazali draws a
distinction between two types of tawhid, characteristic of the commoners and the

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elect respectively. The commoners believe in the plain meaning of the shahdda,
'There is no god but God'. The elect, by contrast, have a more esoteric version,
which reads: 'There is no god but He'. An even more esoteric version, 'There is no
he but He' (la huwa ilia huwa) is mentioned earlier in the same passage without
attribution. The implication is that this is the tawhid of the elect among the elect,
khawass al-khawdss, a group mentioned elsewhere in the Mishkdt}5
In several of his works al-Ghazali discusses tawhid and divides it into a number of
levels or stages (mardtib). The best known - fourfold - classification is found in
Book 35 of the Ihyd3 (Kitdb al-Tawhid wa'l-tawakkul), in the corresponding sections
of Kitab al-Arbacin and the Persian Kimiyd-ye sacddat, and in Kitdb al-Imld3 fi
ishkdldt al-Ihyd3 - a work supplementary to the Ihyd3 and written to rebut criticisms
directed at the latter.16 A slightly different classification is presented in one of al
Ghazalf s Persian letters.17 There, tawhid is divided into six levels. In the following
discussion I shall take the fourfold classification of the Ihyd0 as a basis, providing
references to other classifications in endnotes where appropriate.
In Book 35 of the Ihyd3 al-Ghazali divides tawhid into four levels and compares
them, respectively, to a nut's husk of the husk, husk, kernel and kernel of the kernel,
progressing from the most outward dimension to the innermost.
1. The first level is purely superficial. By it al-Ghazali means enunciating the

shahdda not by the heart but by the tongue alone; this is the tawhid of the
hypocrites (tawhid al-mundfiqin)}%
2. The second level affirms the meaning of the shahdda (macnd al-lafz)19 by the
heart as recognised by the commonality of Muslims. This is the view of the
commoners (ictiqdd al-cawdmm). It is compared to a knot (cuqda) upon a
person's heart;20 religious innovation (bidca) strives to loosen and untie this
knot, whereas kalam protects it (al-Ghazali refers in this context to his kalam
treatise al-Iqtisdd fi'l-ictiqdd).21
3. The third level implies envisioning the shahdda by way of disclosure (bi-tariq
al-kashf) by means of 'expansion of the chest' (inshirdh al-sadr)22 and
illumination by the light of truth (or God: nur al-haqq)23 This is the station of
those 'drawn near [to God]' (maqdm al-muqarrabin). They see all things,
despite their plurality, as originating from a single source, God. In this stage of
tawhid God is the only agent (fdcil), to which all other existents are subjugated
(musakhkharun)'24 this is why it is called tawhid al-ficl or tawhid fi'l-ficI'25 it is
this stage of tawhid that is the foundation of tawakkul.26
4. Finally, the fourth level implies envisioning God as the only existent. This is
the highest purpose of tawhid, called 'the contemplation of the righteous'
(mushdhadat al-siddiqin) or, in Sufi parlance, 'obliteration in tawhid' (al-fand3
fi'l-tawhid), inasmuch as one who sees in existence nothing but God ceases to

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see himself.27 In this stage one sees the universe (al-kull) not insofar as it is
many but insofar as it is one (min haythu innahu wdhid).2* This contemplation
is sometimes lasting but more often comes as a flash of lightning.29
It is important to note that in referring to the fourth level of tawhid al-Ghazali is not
speaking of a purely subjective state of the mystic, who, being totally devoted to and
focused on God, sees nothing else - not even himself - in existence; whose vision,
however, does not correspond to the actual state of affairs, where both God and
creation exist. Such purely subjectivistic interpretation ignores the fact that the
fourth level of tawhid has, for al-Ghazali, an important cognitive content, which he
seeks to analyse and explain in rational terms or through images, as we shall see
30
below. It is with this cognitive content and the ontology revealed therein, not
merely with the psychological state that leads to its realisation, that he is primarily
concerned. This is why he is not content with the Sufi designation of this state as
'obliteration' (fand3), which overemphasises the subjective and experiential side,
and insists on calling it tawhid, emphasising its ontological aspect.
It is for this reason, too, that al-Ghazali is careful to reject alternative ontological
interpretations of this state: he wants to ensure that the ontology it reveals is
adequately interpreted and understood. This is the purpose of the following
comment, made by al-Ghazali in the Persian letter mentioned above, in which he
criticises the 'ecstatic' Sufis al-Hallaj (d. 309/922) and Abu Yazid al-Bistami (d.
261/874 or 264/877-8) who, in his view, failed adequately to interpret their
32
experience:
Those who have reached this stage are overcome in it by a state

similar to intoxication (sokri) and in this intoxication are prone to err
in two ways. First, they may think that there has occurred a
conjunction (ettesdli) [with God] and express it in terms of [God's]
indwelling (holul) [within them]. Second, they may think that there
has occurred a union (ettehddi) [with God]: they have become [God]
Himself33 and the two have become one ... [like those who say] T am
the Real [i.e. God]' and 'Glory be to Me' [i.e. al-Hallaj and al
Bistami respectively]. When this intoxication gives way to sobriety
they understand that they have been in error. [Al-Ghazali then goes
on to refute these interpretations on philosophical grounds.]
The notion that it is not only in a mystic's subjective experience but also in actuality
that (in the last analysis) there is nothing in existence save God is a striking one, and
al-Ghazali is very much aware that it will raise some eyebrows. He therefore
attempts to forestall criticism by offering a variety of partial but complementary
explanations.34 The most revealing of these is to be found in the first part of the
Mishkdt and in the Persian letter mentioned above. These texts are cited below side
by side: the former in paraphrase, the latter in translation.

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazah's Mishkat al-anwar 1
Mishkdt, Parti, ??37-43 Persian Letter35
[?37] Al-Ghazali describes a hierarchy [Question:] Sky, earth, angels, stars, demons
(tartlb) of lights. This hierarchy is not all exist. So what is the meaning of [the
infinite but ascends to a First Source statement] that there is no other existent save
(manbac awwal) - the Light in and of itself God?
(al-nur li-dhdtihi wa-bi-dhatihi), above
which there are no lights and from which the [Answer:] If a king, on the day of a festival
were to go with his servants to the desert and
entire hierarchy shines forth. This Light
deserves the name of light more than give each of them a horse and an outfit
similar to his own and if someone were to
secondary lights.
see all this and say 'Oh, all of them are
[?38] Moreover, the name Tight' as applied equally wealthy' or 'all of them are rich',
to other lights is a pure metaphor (majaz this statement would be and appear correct
mahd), since their luminosity is borrowed [but only] with regard to someone who does
(mustacara) (for if considered in their not know what is behind the matter.
essence (dhdt) they have no light [However] someone who knows what is
whatsoever) and the relation of the thing behind the matter - [namely] that this
borrowed to the borrower is a pure metaphor possession and this favor have been granted
(nisbat al-mustacar ild'l-mustaclr majaz to [the servants] as a loan (cariyya) and that
mahd). [the king] having performed the holiday
prayer will take them away again - he would
[?40] Non-existence is utmost darkness;
say 'None is rich save the king' and his
existence is utmost light. statement would be correct in the real sense.
This is because the relation of the loan to the
[?41] Existence is divided into two kinds:
existence proper to a thing and existence borrower is metaphorical (majazi), so in
borrowed from elsewhere (md IVl-shay0 min reality he remains as poor as he had been
[before the loan] while the lender remains in
dhdtihi wa- ... md lahu min ghayrihi). That
which exists by virtue of borrowed existence control of his wealth despite the money lent
out.36
is pure non-existence (cadam mahd) if
considered in its essence. God alone is the
Know that the existence of all things is a
Real Existent (al-mawjud al-haqq) and the loan (cdriyya) and comes not from the
Real Light. essence of [these] things (az dhat-e chizha)
but from God, while the existence of God is
[?42] There is nothing in existence save
God. Everything is perishing save His Face essential (dhdtT) and does not originate from
[Q. 28:88]: not perishing at a certain anything else. Rather He is the Real Being
moment [in the future] but from eternity to (hast-e be-haqiqat), while all other things
eternity (azalan wa-abadan). are [only] seeming beings (hast-e nomay)
with regard to someone who does not know
[?43] Each thing has two faces: one toward that [their existence] is a loan. However, he
itself, another toward its Lord. With regard who has understood the real nature of things
to the former, it is non-existence; with sees with his own eyes that Everything is
regard to the Face of God it exists. perishing save His Face [Q. 28:88],
Therefore, there is no existent save God and [perishing] from eternity to eternity (azalan
His Face. Therefore, everything is perishing va-abadan), not [merely] at some particular
save His Face [Q. 28:88] from eternity to time [in the future]. Indeed, all things at all
eternity. times are non-existent (macdum) as far as
their essence is concerned (az anja ke dhat-e
vey ast), since non-existence and existence
come to them not from their essence but
from the essence of God. Therefore, this
existence is metaphorical (majazi), not real
(haqiqi). Hence, the statement that there is
no other existent save [God] is correct.

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Here, in the Mishkdt and the Persian letter, al-Ghazali provides theoretical
justification for his radical claim that There is nothing in existence save God': the
'borrowed' and hence 'metaphorical' nature of the existence of created things.37
What is the origin of this idea? In order to answer this question let us notice that
while consonant with important developments within the Sufi tradition38 al-Ghazali's
monistic ontology is critical of some aspects of that tradition (the ecstatic
pronouncements of al-Hallaj and al-Bistami as well as Sufi terminology) and on the
other hand can be shown to stand on a firm philosophical foundation. Specifically, it
bears a striking structural resemblance to, and integrates important elements of,
Avicenna's metaphysics, especially Avicenna's quiddity/existence distinction and
the proof for the existence of God.
According to Avicenna, it is not to their quiddities ('whatnesses', mdhiyydt) that

most existents owe their existence, for if they did, they would exist necessarily in
virtue of what they are and could not not-exist. Since, however, this is patently not
the case, their existence must be due to an external efficient cause: it is 'borrowed',
in al-Ghazali's terminology. As Avicenna demonstrates, the chain of efficient causes
cannot be infinite and must have a beginning - the first efficient cause, i.e. God, who
alone is 'necessary of existence' (wdjib al-wujud), that is, necessarily existent in
virtue of what He is (li-dhdtihi), and not merely 'possible of existence' (mumkin al
wujud), that is, capable of both existence and non-existence as the rest of existents.
It can be seen that in the passages cited above al-Ghazali's discussion follows the
structure and conceptual framework of Avicenna's argument quite closely, with only
occasional modifications and 're-naming' of some of the concepts:
1. Al-Ghazali's 'light' (in the Mishkdt passage) is another term for existence, as
al-Ghazali himself makes clear in Mishkdt, Part 1, ?40.40
2. The hierarchy of lights, emanating light upon one another, corresponds to

Avicenna's chain of efficient causes, bestowing existence upon one another.
The First Source of these lights corresponds to Avicenna's first efficient cause.
3. The 'borrowed' nature of existence corresponds to the fact that in Avicenna's

system existence is bestowed upon a quiddity by an external efficient cause
(and ultimately by the First Cause).
4. The perpetual 'perishing' of all existents corresponds to their 'possible' nature

(imkdn) in Avicenna's system. This explains why, according to al-Ghazali,
their perishing is 'from eternity to eternity' (azalan wa-abadan): although, in
contradistinction to Avicenna, al-Ghazali sees the world as created in time, the
world's possible nature, that is, its being capable of existence or non-existence,
is nevertheless eternal.41

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5. Finally, the two 'faces' of existents - directed at themselves and at God -

correspond to their quiddity and existence respectively. The 'Face of God' is
the flow of existence in created things.42
Furthermore, on several occasions, Avicenna claims that contingent existents, taken

in themselves, are 'void' (batila) and 'deserve non-existence' (tastahiqqu 7- cadam).
In the following remarkable passage from Ildhiyydt, Book 8, Chapter 6, he even uses
the concept of 'face' and quotes the same Qur'anic aya - Q. 28:88 - to substantiate
this claim:43
[The Necessary of Existence] is sometimes also called Real (haqq),

since the belief in Its existence is real. Moreover, there is nothing
more deserving this reality (ahaqq bi-hddhihi'l-haqiqa)44 than That
the belief in whose existence is real, and not only real but eternal, and
not only eternal but is also due to Itself, not to another. The quiddities
of other things, however, do not... deserve existence (la tastahiqqu 7
wujud)\ rather, taken in themselves, when their relation to the
Necessary of Existence is severed, they deserve non-existence
(tastahiqqu'I-cadam). This is why they are all void (batila) in
themselves and real (haqqa) by It, becoming actualised with respect
to the face that is adjacent to It (wa-bi'l-qiyds ila'l-wajh alladhiyalihi
hasila). This is why everything is perishing save His Face [Q. 28:88],
and thus He is more deserving [than anything else] to be [the] Real
(ahaqq bi-an yakuna haqqan).
Al-Ghazalf s use of the concept of 'face' in the Mishkdt and of the Qur'anic phrase
everything is perishing save His Face undoubtedly goes back to this and similar
Avicennian passages. It is also worth noting that when al-Ghazali speaks of the
fourth degree of tawhid he usually calls God 'the One, the Real' (al-wdhid al
haqq),45 providing a direct link to this passage by Avicenna, in which God's name
'the Real' is analysed. Moreover, in his commentary on the Divine Names, al
Maqsad al-asnd fi sharh macdni asma3 Allah al-husnd - a work written after the
Ihya3 but prior to the Mishkdt46 - al-Ghazali explains that the name al-haqq refers to
the essence (dhdt) of God insofar as it is necessary of existence (wajibat al-wujud),
again alluding to Avicenna.47 All this leaves al-Ghazalf s debt to Avicenna beyond
reasonable doubt.
The fourth degree of tawhid represents, therefore, an interpretation - a radical

interpretation, one may add - of Avicenna's metaphysics. This interpretation is a
monistic one: 'There is nothing in existence save God'. Even though this
interpretation does not do justice to Avicenna's system as a whole,48 we do find in
Avicenna passages - such as the one just quoted - that can be taken to support this

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view. It is primarily on such passages that al-Ghazali's monistic interpretation of

tawhid is based.
Monotheism: Commentary on Passage B
Let us now turn to Passage B and the monotheistic perspective. Hermann Landolt in
his important study on the Mishkdt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaft\ published
in 1991, pointed out that this passage is closely related to the third part - the so
called 'Veil Section' - of the Mishkdt49 This section is devoted to an interpretation
of the Veils Hadith: 'God has 70 [in some versions: 70,000] veils of light and
darkness; were He to lift them, the glories of His Face would burn up everyone
whose sight perceived Him'. Following this hadith, al-Ghazali presents a
classification of human beings into four categories: (1) those veiled from God by
pure darkness, (2) those veiled by darkness mixed with light, (3) those veiled by pure
light, and finally (4) the attainers (al-wdsilun). It is essential for our purposes to deal
with the last two categories in detail.
The third category is divided into three groups: first, those (group 3.1) who know the
true meaning of the divine attributes (such as speech, will, power and knowledge)
and realise that there is no connection between the application of these terms to God
and to other existents, including humans. Hence they avoid naming God by these
attributes and refer to Him merely through the relation (iddfa) He has to created
beings, as did Moses in his response to Pharaoh's question 'What is the Lord of the
worlds?' (Q. 26:23).50 This group believes that the Lord transcends the meanings of
the attributes and is the mover and caretaker of the heavens (muharrik al-samdwdt
wa-mudabbiruhd).51
The second group (3.2) realises that there is plurality in the heavens and that each
sphere is moved by a separate angel, the angels being multiple and analogous to stars
(nisbatuhum ild [read ft?] al-anwar al-ilahiyya nisbat al-kawdkib).52 Hence they
conclude that the Lord is the mover of the outermost celestial body encompassing all
the spheres (al-jirm al-aqsd al-muntawl cald'l-afldk kullihd), who is untouched by
plurality.
The third group (3.3) realises that the mover of the outermost celestial body causes
the motion of the heavens directly {bi-tariq al-mubdshara). Since it is not fitting for
the Lord to be the direct cause of motion, the mover of the outermost celestial body
cannot be the Lord but an angel, standing at the Lord's service and analogous to the
_ _ 52
moon (nisba
They believe
jihat hddhd
command (b

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So far the threefold division of the third category. Finally, the fourth category (group
4), the attainers, are those who realise that even this obeyed one (al-mutdc) has a
quality that is at odds with pure singularity, 'on account of a secret that cannot be
disclosed in this book',55 and that the obeyed one is analogous to the sun among
[sensible] lights (nisbat hadha'l-mutdc nisbat al-shams fi'l-anwar).56 This is why
they turn their faces away from the movers of the heavens, the mover of the
outermost celestial body, and the obeyed one, by whose command it is moved,
toward Him who created (fatara) them all.
As noted by Landolt, both Passage B and the Veil Section are parallel to, and based
on, Abraham's gradual ascent to belief in God in Q. 6:76-9. According to the
Qur'anic passage, Abraham saw a star and declared, 'This is my Lord {hadha rabbi)'
(Q. 6:76), yet when the star disappeared beneath the horizon, Abraham said, 7 do
not like those that set (al-afdin)' (Q. 6:76). Then the moon rose and Abraham
declared again, 'This is my Lord' (Q. 6:77); but the moon set, too. Next, the sun
appeared and Abraham exclaimed, 'This is my Lord, [for] this is greater' (Q. 6:78).
Finally, after the sun disappeared as well, Abraham renounced all forms of idolatry
and proclaimed, 7 turn my face as a true believer to Him who created the heavens
and the earth' (Q. 6:79).
In the case of Passage B the Qur'anic substratum is evident, since this passage
alludes to Abraham's ascent to belief in God by quoting the relevant ayas. In the
case of the Veil Section, too, the threefold division of those veiled by pure light is
based on the Qur'anic account of Abraham's ascent. The three groups 3.1, 3.2 and
3.3 are differentiated according to which among the Lord's angels they mistakenly
believe to be the Lord: whether the movers of the heavens, analogous to the stars
(group 3.1), or the mover of the outermost celestial body, analogous to the moon
(group 3.2), or the obeyed one, analogous to the sun (group 3.3). Finally, the fourth
category, the attainers, go beyond all these and turn their faces toward Him who
created them all, as Abraham did.
What makes the connection between Passage B and the Veil Section even closer is
that in Passage B al-Ghazali is not speaking of physical lights (the stars, the moon
and the sun), but of a spiritual and angelic hierarchy that runs parallel to the physical
one. The 'star', the 'moon' and the 'sun' that the 'traveller' encounters on his way
are not the physical star, moon and sun but the spiritual substances (angels)
corresponding to these.57 The 'traveller', in fact, encounters in succession the very
same three angels that the three groups 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 mistakenly view as the Lord.
Why does the traveller turn away from the 'sun' - i.e. from the 'sun-angel' (=the
obeyed one of the third part of the Mishkdt)? According to Landolt, he does so
because the 'sun[-angel]' is 'greater and higher than the moon[-angel]' and, being
'related to something less perfect' than itself, is itself imperfect.58 This however is

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not precisely what al-Ghazali says. Al-Ghazali's text reads (to quote Passage B
again):59
He ascends in the same manner till he reaches the [angel] whose

image (mithdl) is the sun. He sees that it is greater and higher [than
the previous angel], yet he sees that it [too] admits of having an image
through possessing a kind of analogous correspondence (munasaba)
with it. But analogous correspondence with something imperfect is
also an imperfection and a 'setting' [uful, cf. Q. 6:76]. This is why he
says, '/ turn my face as a true believer to Him who created the
heavens and the earth' [Q. 6:79].
It is clear that the imperfection of the sun-angel derives not from the fact that it is
greater and higher than the moon-angel, as Landolt interprets it, but from the fact
that this angel has a physical image (mithdl) - the sun - with which it has analogous
correspondence (munasaba). This, in my view, helps solve one of the puzzles of the
Veil Section, namely why al-Ghazali refrains from identifying the obeyed one with
the Lord: the obeyed one falls short of the ultimate perfection precisely because it
still has an image in the sensible world - the sun. This may be the meaning of al
Ghazali's statement quoted earlier that 'the obeyed one has a quality that is at odds
with pure singularity and utmost perfection, on account of a secret that cannot be
disclosed in this book'.60
According to Passage B, only God Himself transcends any analogous

correspondence.61 God is the 'He who' (alladhl) of the Qur'anic aya that describes
the last stage of Abraham's ascent: 7 have turned my face as a true believer to Him
who (IVlladhl) created the heavens and the earth' (Q. 6:79), and 'He who' is an
unspecific reference (ishdra mubhama) whose referent can have no analogous
correspondence. Indeed, al-Ghazali explains, if someone were to ask, 'what is the
image (mithdl) of the referent (mafhum) of "He who"?', this question would have no
conceivable answer.62
As al-Ghazali further explains, the terms 'heavens' and 'earth' stand for the two
worlds, the spiritual/intelligible 'world of concealment and the [divine] kingdom'
(cdlam al-ghayb wa'l-malakut) and the bodily/sensible 'world of possession and
manifestation' (cdlam al-mulk wa'l-shahdda).63 Thus, al-Ghazali's exegesis of
Q. 6:79 implies that although there is analogous correspondence (munasaba)
between the worlds - the sensible world consisting of images (amthila) of the
intelligible one - He who created these worlds (alladhl fatara 'l-samdwdti wa 'l-ard)
has no image and transcends (mutanazzih) any analogous correspondence.
It might be useful, at this point, to make an excursus on al-Ghazali's theory of

analogous correspondence (munasaba), or parallelism (muwdzana), between the two

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worlds, to which he resorts in this passage.64 In the second part of the Mishkat the
following explanation is provided:65
Divine mercy (al-rahma al-ildhiyya) made the world of manifestation

parallel to (cald muwazana) the world of [divine] kingdom, so that
there is nothing in this world that is not an image (mithal) of
something in the world of kingdom. Sometimes one and the same
thing [in the world of manifestation] is an image of several things in
the world of [divine] kingdom; and sometimes one and the same thing
in the world of [divine] kingdom has many images in the world of
manifestation. In order to be an image a thing has to bear some kind
of likeness to (mumdthala) and match (mutdbaqa) [that whose image
it is].
On the epistemological level, the analogous correspondence between the two worlds
is highly significant, for if it did not exist one would be unable to ascend to the world
of [divine] kingdom at all.66 This is why al-Ghazali regards this analogous
correspondence as a sign of divine mercy. On the ontological level, the analogous
correspondence between the two worlds results from the fact that the world of
manifestation is caused by the world of kingdom and, as al-Ghazali says, 'the caused
is always parallel to (muwdzdi) the cause and imitates (muhdkdt) it in some way, be
it proximate or remote'.67 In other words, the image corresponds to that whose image
it is precisely because it is caused by it and hence receives its imprint.
At this point, we need to ask ourselves how, in al-Ghazalf s view, an image

corresponds to that whose image it is? What kind of analogous correspondence does
the obeyed one, for instance, have to the physical sun? The answer to this question
can be found in al-Ghazalf s discussion of the use of images in a different yet related
field, that of dreams and dream interpretation. Significantly, this discussion, too,
occurs in the second part of the Mishkat, immediately after the discussion of the
traveller's encounter with the three angels:68
The science of dream interpretation (film al-tacbir) will teach you

how images are coined (minhaj darb al-mithal), for dream (ru?yd) is a
part of prophecy.69 Do you not see that in a dream the sun is to be
interpreted as a sultan, because they share, and are similar in (al
musharaka wal-mumdthala), a spiritual meaning (macna ruhdni),
namely being above all (al-isticld? caldJl-kdffa) and having their
effects emanating on all [the rest]. [Similarly] the moon is to be
interpreted as a minister, for while the sun is absent it emanates its
light upon the world through the mediation of the moon, just as the
sultan emanates his lights upon those who are absent from his
presence through the mediation of the minister.

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From this passage we learn that al-Ghazalf s 'image' (mithdl) does not resemble that
whose image it is in any direct sense but through sharing the same 'spiritual
meaning' or, in modern terms, an abstract quality.70 Furthermore, and this is
important, this quality is relational and refers to the role the two analogues play in
their respective systems. The only sense in which the sultan, for instance, is similar
to the sun is that they share an abstract quality, 'being above all', and perform the
same function in, and relate in the same way to other members of, their respective
systems: the sultan to the minister and the subjects and the sun to the moon and the
sublunar world. Al-Ghazalf s analogous correspondence (munasaba) is therefore
systemic: the two systems - in this case, the system of a country's administration and
the system of celestial luminaries - correspond to each other as a whole.
This holds true also for cosmological symbolism: the similarity of the obeyed one to
the sun is not direct. Rather, they share the same abstract quality, 'being above all'
again, and the same function, emanating lights upon the angel or the luminary
immediately beneath them. Here too the analogous correspondence is systemic: the
two systems - that of spiritual lights and that of celestial luminaries - correspond to
each other as a whole.
It is in this sense that God is said to have no image and transcend any analogous
correspondence: no abstract quality pertaining to created beings - not even the
obeyed one's quality of 'being above all' - can be legitimately predicated of God,
whose function in the universe, as its Creator, has no counterpart within the created
universe itself.
Monism and Monotheism: The Relationship Between the Two Perspectives
I hope to have shown that both the monistic and the monotheistic perspective are
present in al-Ghazalf s Mishkdt al-anwar. It might be useful at this point to discuss
how the two are related. I therefore suggest looking at the two passages analysed in
the course of this study from the point of view of Avicenna's quiddity/existence
distinction, already invoked in the first section of this study. The terms huwiyya and
mdhiyya, 'encoded', as we have noticed above, in Passages A and B respectively,
provide a formal justification for this approach.
Once we do so, it becomes clear that Passage A, which I have called monistic,
analyses the relation between God and the world from the perspective of existence.
From this perspective, contingent quiddities, considered in themselves, are sheer
non-existence (cadam mahd). They borrow existence from God. God, by contrast, is
pure existence, which lends itself out to non-existent quiddities to render them
'quasi-existent'. In the last analysis, however, only God exists in the real sense, only
He has a 'he-ness' (or 'existence', huwiyya) and only He can be referred to (la
ishdra ilia ilayhi). The tawhid of the elect among the elect, 'There is no he but He'

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazali's Mishkat al-anwar 15
(la huwa ilia huwa), means simply that, there being nothing but God, any reference
is a reference to Him.71
Passage B, by contrast, focuses on quiddities. From this perspective, God is not

similar to any other being, either because God has no quiddity at all other than His
existence (as Avicenna taught) or because His quiddity is in some other way totally
unlike those of other existents.72 On the level of quiddity, of 'what they are', God
and creatures are incomparable. It is for this reason that Passage B - and the Veil
Section related to it - stress that God has no image (mithdl) and transcends any
analogous correspondence (mundsaba) to created beings.
It is also possible to look at the two passages from the point of view of the standard
opposition between, and complementarity of, tashbih and tanzih, or God's
immanence and transcendence. Seen from this perspective, Passage A represents
tashbih carried to its logical conclusion: to the degree that a contingent existent
exists it is identical with God (or God's Face) and, conversely, to the degree that it is
not identical with God it does not exist (is 'sheer non-existence'). Passage B, by
contrast, represents the tanzih perspective, highlighting the absolute incomparability
between God and creatures.
Passages A and B can also be regarded as representing two different ways to reach
the stage of facing God. The first way is conceptual, it consists in rejecting the very
concept of contingent quiddity as being ultimately unreal and non-existent. This
leaves one immediately facing God alone as the only real existent. The second way
is experiential, it leads to the same conclusion through the (often gradual) leaving
behind of all the contingent existents as being not-God and hence as ultimately
irrelevant.73 One faces God only at the very end of this process, after all the veils
have been removed and all contingent existents, in the world of manifestation and
the world of [divine] kingdom alike, have been rejected.
The following passage at the very end of the Veil Section describes the attainment of
this stage by followers of the second way:74
[The attainers] arrive at an Existent who transcends (munazzah)

everything that [one's] sight has perceived before them. The glories
of His Face, the First, the Supreme, have burnt up everything that the
observers' sight and insight (basar al-ndzirin wa-basiratuhum) have
apprehended. They find Him transcending and incompatible with
(muqaddasan munazzahan) everything that we described previously.
Next, they are divided [into two groups]:
With regard to some [4.1], everything that their sight has perceived is
burnt up, effaced and annihilated, yet they remain contemplating the
[divine] beauty (jamdl) and holiness as well as contemplating
themselves invested with beauty through the arrival at the divine

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presence (al-hadra al-ilahiyya). Thus, with regard to them, only the

objects of sight (al-mubsardt) have been effaced, but not the seer (al
mubsir).
Another group [4.2] goes beyond these. They are the elect among the
elect (khawdss al-khawdss). The glories of His Face have burnt them
up and the power of the [divine] sublimity (jaldl) overwhelmed
them.75 They are effaced and annihilated in themselves (fi dhdtihim),
no longer observing themselves for they are obliterated from
themselves (li-fanaDihim can anfusihim). Only the One, the Real
remains. The meaning of His ay a everything is perishing save His
Face becomes their experience and state (dhawqan wa-hdlan). We
have referred to this in the first part [of the Mishkdt], mentioning how
they use and construe the term 'union' (ittihdd). This is the utmost
limit of the attainers (nihdyat al-wdsilin).
It is clear that the experiential way, as practiced by the Sufis, often lacks the
conceptual clarity required to explain what it is that one has experienced. Al-Ghazali
reminds us of this by referring back to the first part of the Mishkdt, where he
criticised the ecstatic utterances of al-Hallaj and al-Bistami, which in his view reflect
erroneous interpretations of this experience as 'union' and 'indwelling' (see above).
This is why al-Ghazalf s advice to those who have attained this experience - but are
not qualified to interpret it - is to refrain from mentioning more than the poet's
line:76
There was what there was, which I do not recall // so think [of me]
well and do not ask for a [detailed] account (khabar).
On the other hand, neither is the conceptual way, the way of theoretical knowledge
alone, sufficient in itself, for knowledge (cilm) is inferior to experiential realisation,
or 'tasting' (dhawq).11 It is only through a thorough philosophical training and
experience (in this order) that one can hope to face God as al-Hallaj and al-Bistami
did, at the same time avoiding their errors in interpreting this experience.
Al-Ghazali Between Philosophy and Sufism
It is this union between conceptual rigor and an experiential path, and more broadly
between philosophy and Sufism (in this order) that constituted al-Ghazalf s
theological agenda. He did not, as is often believed, renounce philosophy to adopt a
kind of un- or even anti-philosophical mystical worldview. To the contrary, he
criticised precisely those tenets of Sufism (the ecstatic pronouncements of al-Hallaj
and al-Bistami) that he considered philosophically untenable, while his Sufism
78
remained philosophical through and through. His use of Avicenna's ideas, as we
have seen especially in the first part of this study, represents an important milestone

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in the history of the progressive integration of philosophical concepts, terminology

and even methods - both Aristotelian (and subsequently Avicennian) and
Neoplatonic - by the Sufi tradition.79
Lest the idea of a 'philosophical Sufism' sound like an oxymoron, let us take a brief
look at a passage from Abu Rayhan al-Blriinf s (d. after 442/1050) famous book on
India. Al-BirunI - more than half a century before al-Ghazalf s time - regards the
Sufi tradition as having close affinity with philosophy, so much so that he derives
80
the term 'Stiff from the Greek sophia, 'wisdom'. Even more significantly, the
passage in which this etymology occurs deals with monistic doctrines of the Ancient
Greeks, in comparison to those of the Indians and the Sufis. It deserves to be quoted
in full:81
Before the emergence of wisdom [i.e. 'philosophy', hikma] through

the Seven [Sages] called the Pillars of Wisdom (asdtin al-hikma) ...
and the [further] refinement of philosophy (falsafa) at the hands of
their followers, Ancient Greeks (qudamd3 al-yundniyyin) followed a
doctrine similar to that of the Indians (maqdlat al-Hind). Some of
them maintained that all things are one ... others ascribed real
existence to the First Cause alone {kana yard al-wujud al-haqiqi li 7
cilla al-uldfaqat), for [the First Cause] is self-sufficient in [existence]
(li-istighnd3 iha bi-dhdtihd fihi), whereas other [existents] are in need
of It [in order to exist], and the existence of that which is in need of
another in order to exist is like imagination and is not real (ka'l
khaydl, ghayr haqq), so the only real [existence] is the One, the First.
This is the opinion of the sophoi [al-Sufiyya, with a sinl], i.e. wise
men (hukamd3), for in Greek soph[ia] means wisdom and the
philosopher is called pildsupd,*2 i.e. lover of wisdom (muhibb al
hikma). When some people among the Muslims (fi'l-Islam qawm)
began following a doctrine similar to theirs they were called by the
same name, but since this term was not widely understood it was
reinterpreted, on account of [their] reliance [on God] (IVl-tawakkul),
to refer to the 'porch' (al-suffa) and they [were considered] to be the
'people of the porch' at the time of the Prophet.83 Afterwards, the
term was corrupted [further] and came to be derived from [the word
for] goat wool (sufal-tuyiis).M
Whether or not there is a grain of truth in al-Birunf s etymology and his account of
the history of Sufism, it is evident that the Sufism he had in mind was of a
philosophical bent, with a pronounced monistic tendency. It is this trend of Sufism
that al-Ghazali followed, reinforcing it further by integrating in his monistic
ontology important elements of Avicenna's metaphysics.

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NOTES
1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference 'The Qur'an: Text,
Interpretation and Translation', School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 10-12
November 2005.1 wish to thank the organisers of the conference for inviting me to SOAS and
the participants for important feedback. An earlier version of the first part of this paper was
also presented at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society in Seattle, 17-20 March
2006.1 owe a similar debt of gratitude to the organisers and participants of the AOS meeting.
Finally, my thanks go to the two reviewers at the JQS for their helpful suggestions and
encouragement.
References to the Mishkdt, including paragraph numbers, follow the Arabic text printed in al
Ghazali, The Niche of Lights, tr. D. Buchman (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press,
1998). Other editions of the Mishkdt were consulted as well: (1) ed. Ahmad cIzzat and Faraj
Allah Zaki al-Kurdi (Cairo: Matbacat al-Sidq, 1322/1904-5); (2) ed. AbuT-cAla3 cAfifi
(Cairo: al-Dar al-Qawmiyya liT-Tibaca waT-Nashr, 1964); (3) ed. al-Sayrawan (Beirut: ?Alam
al-Kutub, 1407/1986). Al-Sayrawan's edition is based on one of the earliest known
manuscripts of the Mishkdt, Beirut MS AUB 325, copied in 541/1147. Other works by al
Ghazali are abbreviated as follows: Arhacin = Kitab al-arbacln fi usul al-dln, ed. CA.CA.
cUrwanI and M.B. al-Shaqafa (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1424/2003); Fada'ih = Fada'ih al
batiniyya, ed. CA. Badawl (Cairo: al-Dar al-Qawmiyya HT-Tibaca waT-Nashr, 1383/1964);
Fay sal - Faysal al-tafriqa bayn al-Isldm wa'l-zandaqa, ed. M. BTju (Damascus: n.p.,
1993/1413); Ihyd3 = Ihyd3 culum al-din (5 vols, Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tawfiqiyya, n.d.); Imld3
= al-Imla3 fi ishkalat al-Ihya3, appended to the edition of the Ihyd3, vol. 5, pp. 282-326;
Iqtisdd = al-Iqtisad fi'l-ictiqdd, ed. LA. (Jubukcu and H. Atay (Ankara: Nur Matbaasi,1962);
Jawdhir = Jawdhir al-Qur3dn (Beirut: Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida, 1397/1977); Klmiyd = Kimiyd
ye sacddat, ed. Hoseyn Khadlv Jam (2 vols, Tehran: Sherkat-e Entesharat-e cElmi va
Farhangl, 1383Sh/2004); Makatlb = Makdtlb-e farsi-ye Ghazzdli be-ndm-e Fadd3il al-anam
min rasa3il hujjat al-Isldm, ed. cAbbas Eqbal (Tehran: Ketabforushi-ye Ebn-e Sina,
1333Sh/1954); Maqasid = Maqdsid al-faldsifa, ed. M.S. al-Kurdi (Cairo: al-Matbaca al
Mahmudiyya al-Tijariyya biT-Azhar, 1355/1936); Maqsad - al-Maqsad al-asnd ft shark
macanl asmd3 Allah al-husnd, ed. F.A. Shehadi (Beirut: Dar al-Mashriq, 1971); Munqidh = al
Munqidh min al-daldl, ed. J. Saliba and K. cAyyad (Beirut: Dar al-Andalus, 1387/1967) (the
paragraph numbers follow R.J. McCarthy's translation of the text in his Freedom and
Fulfillment: An Annotated Translation of al-GhazdlVs al-Munqidh min al-daldl and Other
Relevant Works of al-Ghazali (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980)); Tahdfut = Tahafut al
faldsifa, ed. M. Bouyges (Beirut: Imprimerie catholique, 1927). References to chapters and
subdivisions of each work are given where possible. All translations in this study are my own.
2 The questions of creation in time versus perpetual creation and creation ex nihilo versus
creation from preexistent matter need not concern us here. What is important for our purposes
is that the monotheistic paradigm acknowledges creation (in any sense of the term) as a real
and fundamental fact.
3 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 1, ??52-^4, p. 20, lines 3-20.

4 The textual corrections are based on another edition of the Mishkdt, ed. al-Sayrawan, p.
144; cf. H. Landolt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaft: Some Notes on the Mishkdt al
Anwdr\ Etudes Asiatiques 45:1 (1991), pp. 19-72, at p. 61.
5 Adding muwajjih as suggested by Landolt, 'Ghazali and Religionswissenschaft', p. 61, n.
166 (where muwajjihiin is almost certainly a mistake, and should probably read muwajjihun).
6 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ??11-15, p. 27, line 15 to p. 28, line 19.
7 The perfect often has the performative meaning of '[a]n act which is just completed at the
moment, and by the very act, of speaking' - W. Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language
(2 vols, Cambridge: University Press, 1896-8 and reprints), vol. 2, p. 1b, ?ld.

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8 This is a provisional translation of the complex term hanif, on which see most recently F.
de Blois, 'Nasrani (Nazoraios) and hanif (ethnikos): Studies on the Religious Vocabulary of
Christianity and of Islam', Bulletin of the Society of Oriental and African Studies 65:1 (2002),
pp. 1-30, at pp. 16ff., with relevant bibliography.
9 This term will be clarified in what follows.
10 On this term, see most recently P. Adamson, 'Before Essence and Existence: al-Kindi's
Conception of Being', Journal of the History of Philosophy 40 (2002), pp. 297-312, passim,
esp. pp. 299-300 for references to earlier literature.
11 For a comparable treatment of the dialogue between Moses and Pharaoh see the passage
from the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, Epistle no. 4.1 [42], referred to by Landolt,
'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaff, p. 29.
12 This formula occurs in al-Ghazali, Ihya3, bk 36, baydn 8, vol. 4, p. 444, line 28; Maqsad,
p. 59, line 1; Mishkat, part 1, ?42, p. 16 (as noted by Landolt, 'Ghazall and
Religionswissenschaff, p. 60, this is the only section in the entire work entitled haqiqat al
haqa?iq), and in one of al-Ghazalf s Persian letters, Makdtib, p. 19, line 8; cf. German tr. in D.
Krawulsky, Briefe und Reden des Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Gazzali (Freiburg im Breisgau:
K. Schwarz, 1971), p. 91. In Mishkdt, part 1, ?43, p. 17, line 3, and His Face' is added
(see paraphrase below). See also al-GhazalT, Klmiyd, convdn 2,fasl 8, vol. 1, p. 62; and the
important passage in al-Ghazali, Maqsad, p. 58, lines 7ff. (quoted in B. Abrahamov, 'al
Ghazalf s Supreme Way to Know God', Studia Islamica 11 (1993), pp. 141-68, at pp. 159f.).
According to Landolt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaff, p. 60, n. 161, the phrase 'there is
nothing in existence save God' is a 'famous dictum summarising ontological tawhid,
attributed by cAyn al-Qudat to Macruf al-Karkhl (Tamhiddt [ed. cOseyran, Mosannafdt-e
cEynolqodat-e Hamadani (Tehran: Daneshgah-e Tehran, 1962), p.] 256)'. He goes on to say
that others, like Najm-e Razi and Semnani, attribute it to Junayd (citing Der Islam 50 (1973),
p. 56). See also W.C. Chittick, 'Rumi and wahdat al-wujud' in A. Banani et al. (eds), Poetry
and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994), pp. 70-111, at p. 71; p. 105, n. 4 with further references; I am indebted to Kazuyo
Murata for bringing Prof. Chittick's article to my attention. The historicity of the attribution of
this phrase to such early authorities as Ma?ruf al-Karkhl or Junayd is however somewhat
suspect. Junayd's discussion of tawhid (A.H. Abdel-Kader, The Life, Personality and Writings
of al-Junayd (London: Luzac, 1976), pp. 68-75 and Arabic part, pp. 51-7) although
fascinating in its own right, makes no reference to this phrase or idea. I am grateful to Prof.
Gerhard Bowering for discussing this point with me and providing important references on the
history of this idea in the Sufi tradition.
It should also be mentioned that in less esoteric contexts al-Ghazali uses the fuller formula
'There is nothing in existence save God and His acts' (laysa fi'l-wujud illa'llah wa-afaluhu),
speaking, as it were, from the point of view of the third degree of tawhid (e.g. al-GhazalT,
Jawahir, part 1, ch. 3, p. 11, lines 1-2; Maqsad, p. 58, lines 9-10; Mustasfa, muqaddima,
dacama \,fann 2, imtihan 2, vol. 1, p. 69, lines 11-12; cf. Ihya0, bk 31, vol. 4, p. 38, lines 5-6
('There is none in existence save God, his attributes and his acts'); Ihya0, bk 36, vol. 4, p. 452,
penultimate line (God's essence and acts are the only existents)). Yet, the problem of how the
shorter formula, expressing the fourth degree of tawhid, is to be interpreted still remains. (On
the four degrees of tawhid see below.)
13 Al-Ghazali, Mishkat, part 1, ?41, p. 16, line 8. The entire passage is given in a paraphrase
below.
14 On al-Ghazalf s view of tawhid see also: M.M. al-Misbahi, 'al-Ghazali bayna wahdat al
tawhid wa-wahdat al-ahadiyya' in M.M. al-Misbahi, Dalalat wa-ishkdldt: dirasat fi'l-falsafa
al-cArabiyya al-Islamiyya (Casablanca: Manshurat cUkaz, 1988), pp. 85-112, esp. pp. 104ff.;
M. Noor Nabi, al-GhazalVs Conception of tawhid: An Analytical Approach (Aligarh: n.p.,

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1977). The latter reference is supplied by H. Daiber, Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy

(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999), vol. 1, p. 706, no. 6871; I have not seen this work.
15 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 3, ?33 (quoted in the Section 'Monism and Monotheism: The
Relationship Between the Two Perspectives' below), where Q. 28:88 is mentioned as their
'experience and state' (dhawqan wa-halan).
16 Al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 342; Klmiya, bk 38, ch. 2 (Haqiqat-e towhid
ke bend-ye tavakkol bar vey ast), vol. 2, pp. 529ff.; Arbacln, bk 4, ch. 7, pp. 236f.; Imla0, pp.
292ff. (cf. also Ihyd0, bk 1, ch. 3, bayan 2, vol. 1, pp. 56f. where al-Ghazali deals with the
meanings of the term tawhid, presenting a threefold division). On the historical context and
agenda of the Imla0, see now K. Garden, al-GhazalVs Contested Revival: 'Ihyd0 culum al-din'
and its Critics in Khorasan and the Maghrib, PhD Dissertation (University of Chicago, 2005),
esp. pp. 12Iff.
17 Al-Ghazali, Makdtib, pp. 15ff; Krawulsky (tr.), Briefe und Reden, pp. 79ff. In this letter
al-Ghazali responds to several queries pertaining to topics raised in his Mishkdt al-anwar and
Kimiyd-ye sacadat, including the classification of tawhid in the Mishkdt. See Garden, al
GhazalVs Contested Revival, pp. 104ff. for a discussion of this letter and its historical context.
18 Cf. al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 3, ?12: ijamaca yaquluna bi-lisdnihim "la ildh illd'lldh".'
This correspondence is noted by Landolt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaff, p. 32, p. 63.
19 Al-Lafz here refers to lafz al-tawhld, i.e. the shahdda', cf. al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan
2, vol. 4, p. 342, line 14, line 19. The expression macna al-lafz is not to be understood in the
sense of 'literal meaning'.
20 This pun makes creative use of the fact that the Arabic word for knot (cuqda) comes from
the same root as the word for view or opinion (ictiqdd).
21 Al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 344, line 12. This is not the place to discuss
al-Ghazali's attitude to kalam. See the nuanced and detailed discussions in Ihyd0, bk 1, bah 2,
bayan 2, vol. 1, p. 40, lines 1 Iff.; Ihyd0, bk 2, ch. 2, vol. 1, pp. 146-52 (on the legal status of
kalam). Cf. al-Ghazali, Munqidh, ??21ff, pp. 66ff., esp. ?21, p. 66.
22 Al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 343, lines 7-10. Expansion of the chest was
impossible in the second stage of tawhid due to the knot on the heart that prevented it from
expanding.
23 Note that the third level of tawhid is connected to 'knowledge' (cilm) in the triad Iman (or
ictiqad)-cilm-dhawq; cf. al-Ghazali, Mustasfd, muqaddima, dacama \,fann 2, imtihdn 2, vol.
1, p. 68, lines 7-8, where cilm is connected to kashf wa-inshirah: 'wa-ammd al-cilm ... fa
innahu kashf wa-inshirah, wa'l~ictiqad cuqda caWl-qalb, wal-cilm cibara can inhilal al
cuqad.' On the light cast by God into al-Ghazali's chest and the subsequent sharh al-sadr see
Munqidh, ??15f, pp. 62f., where this light is described as 'the key to most knowledge'. See
discussion of this motive in H. Lazarus-Yafeh, Studies in al-Ghazzali (Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 1975), pp. 284-90.
24 Al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 344, lines 18-19: Ja-innahu al-facil caWl
infirdd duna ghayrihi, wa-md siwahu musakhkharuna la istiqlal lahum bi-tahrlk dharra min
malakut al-samawdt wa'l-ard.' See also al-Ghazali, Munqidh, ?45, pp. 77f. where God's
being the only true agent, the rest of the universe being subjugated (musakhkhara) to Him, is
the only correction offered by al-Ghazali to the philosophers' teachings in the domain of
physics.
25 Al-Ghazali, lhya?, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 343, line 11; p. 351, line 14; p. 356, line 10.
26 Al-Ghazali, Ihyd0, bk 35, bayan 2, vol. 4, p. 344, lines 9-10.
27 'Wa-tusammihVl-Sufiyya al-fand? fi'l-tawhid li-annahu min haythu la yard ilia wdhidan
fa-la yard nafsahu aydan wa-idhd lam yara nafsahu li-kawnihi mustaghriqan bVl-tawhld kana
faniyan can nafsihifi tawhidihi bi-macnd annahu faniya can ru?yat nafsihi wa'l-khalq\ Note

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that Sufi terminology is introduced with some reservation and explained in terms of al
Ghazalf s own theory. Moreover, the ending 'obliteration in tawhid' was probably added by
al-Ghazali himself to make the Sufi term closer to his own. Cf. al-Ghazali, Mishkat, part 1,
?48, p. 18 (paraphrased in note 32 below); Makatib, p. 18, lines 21-2; Krawulsky (tr.), Briefe
und Reden, p. 90 (the Sufis are called ahl-e basirat).
28 In the Mishkat, al-Ghazali calls this 'pure singularity' (al-fardaniyya al-mahda)
Cistaghraqu bi'l-farddniyya al-mahda' (part 1, ?45, p. 17, lines 16-17); 'al-mustaghriq bi'l
farddniyya' (part 1, ?57, p. 21, line 12); cf. part 1, ?54, p. 20, line 20). He clarifies that the
realm of singularity (mamlakat al-fardaniyya) is the end of the creatures' ascent (muntahd
micrdj al-khaWiq) (Mishkat, part 1, ?55, p. 21, line 1; ?57, p. 21, line 18), since any ascent
presupposes plurality, and in the realm of singularity all plurality is abolished (Mishkat, part 1,
?55).
29 Al-Ghazali, Ihya0, bk 35, vol. 4, p. 344, lines 2-3. On the use of the image of a 'flash of
lightning' in this context cf. references given in B. Abrahamov, Divine Love in Islamic
Mysticism: The Teachings of al-Ghazali and al-Dabbagh (London and New York:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), p. 65; p. 68; p. 160, n. 90; p. 160, n. 102; al-Ghazali, Ihya0, bk 21,
baydn 8, vol. 3, p. 26, lines 23-4; vol. 3, p. 27, lines 26-8.
30 The subjectivistic interpretation is favored by W.M. Watt, 'A Forgery in al-Ghazalf s
MishkdtT, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1949), pp. 5-22, at p. 16, and Abu'l-cAla?
cAfifi in the introduction to his edition of the Mishkat, pp. 15-16, among others (cAfifi claims
that this is only how mystics see things, it is wahdat al-shuhud, not wahdat al-wujud). For the
objectivist interpretation proposed here see, e.g., F. Shehadi, Ghazali's Unique Unknowable
God: A Philosophical Critical Analysis of Some of the Problems Raised by Ghazali's View of
God as Utterly Unique and Unknowable (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1964), p. 32, n. 4.
31 See note 27 above.
32 Al-Ghazali, Makatib, p. 19, lines 15-20; Krawulsky (tr.), Briefs und Reden, pp. 91-2. In
the first part of the Mishkat al-Ghazali argues along similar lines: 'The ecstatic
pronouncements of al-Hallaj, al-Bistami and their likes are due to intoxication (sukr) and
passionate love (cishq); these people do not reach real union (haqiqat al-ittihad), which is
impossible, but what resembles union (shibh al-ittihad)' (Mishkat, part 1, ?46). The correct
term to describe this state is, in relation to the person who attains it, 'obliteration' (fand?) or
rather 'obliteration of obliteration' (fana3 al-fand?); and in relation to That in which he is
immersed (al-mustaghraq bihi), tawhid (Mishkdt, part 1, ?48; Buchman mistranslates 'in
relation to the one immersed in it', taking bihi to refer to the state (hala), which is impossible
grammatically as well as from the point of view of the content, since al-Ghazali is
distinguishing here between sahib al-hdla and al-mustaghraq bihi, and they cannot both refer
to the person who attains the state). For a similar interpretation of al-Hallaj and al-Bistami see
also al-Ghazali, Maqsad, p. 139; and cf. al-Ghazali, Fadd?ih, p. 109 where several groups who
believed in hulul, including the ecstatic Sufis, are discussed. Cf. al-Ghazali, Munqidh, ?96, p.
102 for implicit criticism of ecstatic Sufis; Mizan, ch. 4, p. 207, lines 7-14 (taken out in the
corresponding discussion in Ihya0, bk 21, baydn 4); Ihya0, bk 30, baydn 2, vol. 3, p. 556, lines
6ff.
33 The text is not clear: 'w khud gashf (Krawulsky translates: 'dass sie selbst vergingen'). I
suggest amending it to 'w khodd gashf, 'he became God'.
34 See, e.g., al-Ghazali, Ihya0, bk 35, baydn 2, vol. 4, p. 343, lines 14ff. (cf. Klmiyd, bk 38,
ch. 2, vol. 2, pp. 532f.); bk 36, baydn 8, vol. 4, p. 444, line 28 to p. 445, line 5 (and cf. Iqtisad,
Introduction, p. 4, lines Iff.); Irnld0, p. 309, lines 26-9; Maqsad, p. 58, line 9 to p. 59, line 2
(quoted in Abrahamov, 'Supreme Way', pp. 159f., esp. p. 160, n. 87). In the Maqsad al
Ghazali argues that everything is God's acts, but insofar as they are God's acts, produced by
the divine power, they are inseparable from God, just as the light of the sun is inseparable
from the sun. (On the image of the sun and its rays see note 71 below.)

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35 Al-Ghazali, Makdtib, p. 20, lines 3-19; Krawulsky (tr.), Briefe und Reden, pp. 92-3.
36 Cf. al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 1, ??38-9 for a shortened version of this parable (omitted in
the paraphrase cited here).
37 Note the rhetorical background of the terms mustacdr and majazi, both meaning
'metaphorical'. I am grateful to one of the reviewers for pointing this out in his or her
comments.
38 See, e.g., R. Gramlich, 'Mystical Dimensions of Islamic Monotheism' in A. Schimmel

and A. Falaturi (eds), We Believe in One God: The Experience of God in Christianity and
Islam (London: Burns and Oates, 1979), pp. 136-48 and Chittick, 'Rumi and wahdat al
wujud\ pp. 70-1.
39 For the following discussion of Avicenna's quiddity/existence distinction and the proof
for the existence of God see, e.g., H.A. Davidson, ' Avicenna's Proof of the Existence of God
as a Necessarily Existent Being' in P. Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophical Theology
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1979), pp. 165-87; M.E. Marmura, 'Avicenna's
Proof from Contingency in the Metaphysics of His al-ShifdJ\ Mediaeval Studies 42 (1980),
pp. 34-56.
40 Cf. al-Ghazali, Maqsad, section on the name al-niir, p. 157, line 15 to p. 158, line 4; H.A.
Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the
Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1992), pp. 132f.,p. 142.
41 Notice how the question of creation becomes irrelevant in the monistic paradigm. What
matters is that created existents are perpetually perishing (both 'before' - if this is a
meaningful expression - and after creation); it is their eternal 'possible' nature that comes to
the fore.
I disagree with Davidson's interpretation (Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect, p.

133), according to which this passage implies preeternity of the world. In my view, the
passage takes no stance on the question of preeternity; rather it presents it as irrelevant.
Significantly, in the Maqasid, Metaphysics, p. 68, al-Ghazali reinterprets the term muhdath
('originated') as mumkin al-wujud, following Avicenna: 'wa-qad dhakarnd anna'l-mumkin la
yakunu mawjudan bi-nafsihi bal bi-ghayrihi wa-hadhd ma?na kawnihi muhdathan, fa'l-cdlam
idhan mumkin al-wujud fa-huwa idhan muhdath, wa-macna kawnihi muhdathan anna
wujudahu min ghayrihi wa-laysa lahu min dhatihi wujiid, fa-huwa bi-ictibar dhdtihi la wujud
lahu wa-bi-ictibdr ghayrihi lahu wujiid, wa-ma li'l-shay0 bi-dhdtihi qabla ma lahu bi-ghayrihi
qabliyyatan bVl-dhdt, wa'l-cadam lahu bVl-dhdt, wa'l-wujud bi'l-ghayr, fa-cadamuhu qabla
wujudihi, fa-huwa muhdath azalan wa-abadan li-annahu mawjud min ghayrihi azalan wa
abadan\ Cf. Avicenna, Ddneshname-ye calaDi: eldhiyyat, ed. M. Mocin (Tehran: Anjoman-e
Athar-e Milli, 1952), ?28, p. 83, lines 4-5: 'momken ol-vojud rd vojud be-cellat bovad va be
khud u rd hastl nabovad va be-chizi digar-ash hastl bovad, va mohdathl in bovad\
42 This has already been noticed by Landolt, 'Ghazali and Religionswissenschaff, p. 61.
43 Avicenna, al-Shifa3: al-ildhiyyat, ed. G.C. Anawati et al. (Cairo: Wizarat al-Macarif,
1380/1960), bk 8, ch. 6, pp. 356, lines 10-15. The importance of this passage for al-Ghazali
was already noticed by R.M. Frank, Creation and the Cosmic System: al-Ghazdli & Avicenna
(Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1992), p. 16; p. 62, n. 118. Other relevant
passages in Avicenna include: Ildhiyyat, bk 1, ch. 8, p. 48, lines 5?13; bk 8, ch. 3, p. 342, lines
6-14; Commentary on Metaph. Lambda, ad 1072b3 in CA. Badawl (ed.), Arista cindayl-cArab
(Kuwait: Wakalat al-Matbucat, 1978), pp. 22-33, here p. 25, line 23 to p. 26, line 2 (alluding
to Q. 28:88; at p. 26, line 2 read 'wa-fkdsi} al-ashyd3 al-ukhra haqiqat wujudihd', following
Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, MS Hikma 6M, fol. 139v.; I am grateful to Prof. Dimitri Gutas for kindly
providing me with a copy of the manuscript and to Prof. Jules Janssens for confirming the
reading); Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle in Badawi, Aristu cind al-cArab,

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazah's Mishkat al-anwar 23
pp. 35-74, at p. 46, lines 5-9. On the First Cause as pure self-subsisting light see also
Avicenna, Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle, pp. 56-7 (already discussed by
Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect, pp. 132f.).
44 Here and below notice Avicenna's puns on the root h-q-q.
45 Al-Ghazali, Ihya3, bk 35, baydn 2, vol. 4, p. 343, line 13 and elsewhere, e.g. bk 36, baydn
8, vol. 4, p. 444, line 29; vol. 4, p. 445, line 2; Mishkdt, part 1, ?45, p. 17, line 15; part 2, ?26,
p. 30, line 15; part 3, ?33, p. 52, line 6 (cf. part 1, ?42, p. 16, line 16 and part 2, ?14, p. 28,
line 10: 'al-awwal al-haqq'). In the context of the third degree of tawhid God is usually called
al-wdhid al-qahhdr (the expression occurs e.g. in Q. 40:16, quoted in Mishkdt, part 1, ?44, p.
17; Maqsad, p. 160). See Ihya3, bk 35, baydn 2, vol. 4, p. 342, line 9; p. 351, line 5; cf. qahir
in Ihya3, vol. 4, p. 345, line 22.
46 G.F. Hourani, 'A Revised Chronology of Ghazali's Writings', Journal of the American
Oriental Society 104 (1984), pp. 289-302, at p. 298a.
47 Al-Ghazali, Maqsad, p. 172, lines 13-14; cf. the section on al-haqq in Maqsad, pp.
137ff., which is clearly modelled on the passage from Avicenna's Ildhiyyat, bk 8, ch. 6,
quoted above.
48 For Avicenna, both the Necessary of Existence and the contingent beings can be said to
exist in the proper sense (the existence of the contingent beings is not metaphorical), yet the
degree to which they 'deserve' existence differs, and hence the term existence is predicated of
them 'by gradation' (bi'l-tashkik). See the discussion of 'graded terms' (asma3 mushakkika) in
Avicenna's Maquldt of the Shifd3, ed. G. Anawati et al. (Cairo: Wizarat al-Macarif,
1378/1959), bk 1, ch. 2, p. 10, line 8 to p. 11, line 4, where 'existence' is used as an example. I
intend to deal with the question of the 'gradation of existence' (tashklk al-wujud) in Avicenna
in a forthcoming study.
49 Watt's view that the third part is not authentic (Watt, 'A Forgery in al-Ghazall's
MishkdtT) is to be rejected, among other reasons because there are (partial) parallels to this
section in other works of al-Ghazali; see Landolt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaff, p. 27,
n. 34 for references, to which one can add al-Ghazali, Kimiyd, convan 2,fasl 5, vol. 1, p. 57ff.
However, as Landolt notices (p. 72), 'only a careful examination of the whole manuscript
tradition, plus external evidence' will be able to settle the question completely.
50 Moses' response is 'Lord of the heavens and the earth' (rabbu'l-samdwdti wa'l-ard) (Q.
26:24, also a grammatical idafa in Arabic). Both Pharaoh's question and Moses' response are
quoted and discussed in al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ?15 (Passage B above).
51 It goes beyond the scope of this article to provide identifications of these groups. This
subject is in need of further study. For tentative identifications based on earlier scholarship
(Gairdner and Landolt) see Buchman's notes to his translation of the Mishkdt, p. 67, n. 14, nn.
16-18.
52 The construction nisbatu X nisbatu Y ('X is analogous to Y') is related to the more
common construction mathalu X mathalu Y ('X is similar to Y'). The reading fi instead of ila
is, as far as I know, not attested in the manuscripts of the Mishkdt, however, it seems superior,
for al-Ghazali is speaking about the rank of the angels among the intelligible lights (analogous
to the rank of the stars, the moon and the sun among the sensible lights (fi'l-anwdr al
mahsusa)), not about their relation to the intelligible lights, of which they, after all, form a
part.
53 Min jiha serves simply to indicate the agent of the passive participle (cf. min qibal in
Modern Standard Arabic). Both Buchman (Mishkat, p. 51) and Landolt ('Ghazall and
Religionswissenschaff, p. 41) seem to mistranslate the sentence. Min jiha in this function
occurs in Munqidh, ?45, p. 78, line 7 ('bal hiya mustacmala min jihat fdtiriha') as well as in,
e.g., Ps.-Ammonius, see Ulrich Rudolph, Die Doxographie des Pseudo-Ammonios: Ein

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Beitrag zur neuplatonischen Uberlieferung im Islam (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1989), ?XX.l-3, p.

67 ('niir caqli la yudraku min jihat cuqulind"; cf. tr. p. 103).
54 Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect, pp. 134f., p. 142 argues that the
angels that move their celestial spheres directly and by way of command are, respectively, the
souls of the spheres and the incorporeal intelligences. If this is correct, the moon-angel and the
sun-angel (=the obeyed one) are, respectively, the soul and the intellect of the outermost
celestial body. Notice that in Maqasid, Metaphysics, p. 128, lines 3-A, al-Ghazali draws a
distinction between the souls of the spheres, who set the spheres in motion 'bi-taflq al
mubdshara wal-ficV, and the separate intelligences, who do that indirectly, 'bi-tariq al-cishq'
{that is, through the spheres' love to them). This reference, not supplied by Davidson,
supports his position.
55 'Tajalla lahum ay dan anna hadha l-mutac mawsuf bi-sifa tunajj'l-wahdaniyya al-mahda
wal-kamdl al-bdligh li-sirr la yahtamilu hadha"l-kitab kashfahu' (al-Ghazali, Mishkat, part 3,
?31, p. 51).
56 As Frank Griffel kindly informed me, the idiosyncratic reading of the old Cairo edition
(Cairo: Matbacat al-Sidq, 1322/1904-5, p. 55, lines 1-12), 'nisbat hddha'l-mutdc ila'l-wujud
al-haqq nisbat al-shams ild'l-nur al-mahd aw nisbat al-jamr ila jawhar al-nar al-sirf
(underlying Gairdner's translation of the passage), is not attested in the manuscripts that he
consulted. My gratitude goes to him for generously sharing with me a draft of his critical
edition of the passage.
57 Al-Ghazali is very clear on this point: Mishkat, vol. 2, ?12 Cyantahi ila ma darajatuhu
darajat al-kawakib'); ?13 ('ma fawqahu mimmd rutbatuhu rutbat al-qamar'); ?14 ('yantahi
ila ma mithdluhu'I-shams'). In the Ihya0 (bk 30, baydn 2, vol. 3, p. 555, line 13ff.) al-Ghazali
makes it clear that neither was Abraham misled by the physical stars, moon and sun, but by
the spiritual lights analogous to these.
58 Landolt, 'Ghazall and Religionswissenschaft', pp. 51?2: '[At the highest stage of his
ascent] Abraham ... points to "He who" (alladhi). That means, Ghazall explains, that the
mystic (salik) at the final stage of his "ascent" reaches a point where he "turns his face" from
the "sun", because the sun, being "greater" and "higher" (than the moon), is eo ipso "related"
to something "less perfect" - whereas the act of "turning his face to He [sicl] who originally
created" is by itself "undetermined" {ishdra mubhama), given that "the concept of He who"
(mafhum alladhi) is, as such, beyond any conceivable referent; and "what is beyond any
relation is the True First (al-awwal al-haqq)".'
59 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ? 14, p. 28, lines 6-8.
60 Al-Ghazali, Mishkat, part 3, ?31, p. 51. Landolt, again, assumes that the imperfection
derives from the fact that the obeyed one has a relation to the moon-angel insofar as it is
obeyed by it ('Ghazall and Religionswissenschaff, p. 50). This is different from my
suggestion put forward here that the imperfection has its origin in the obeyed one having a
sensible image, i.e. the sun.
One of the reviewers of this article has pointed out to me that my 'interpretation that the
Obeyed One falls short of perfection because susceptible of symbolisation, oddly does not
explain why Ghazali says the secret of this falls outside the remit of the book'. This is
certainly true, and possibly al-Ghazali's statement that this secret cannot be disclosed in this
book should not be taken on its face value. Perhaps it alludes, somewhat more generally, to al
Ghazali's esoteric writing technique, employed most prominently in the Mishkat, a technique
that requires that a work be 'decoded' through constant reflection on and juxtaposition and
careful analysis of certain passages. (This technique is employed by other authors as well,
notably by Maimonides in the Guide of the Perplexed.)
61 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ?14, p. 28, line 10: fa'l-mutanazzih can kull munasaba
huwa 1-awwal al-haqq'.

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazalf s Mishkdt al-anwar 25
62 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ?14, p. 28. My paraphrase here clears some inaccuracies of
Landolt's paraphrase quoted in note 58 above. First, al-Ghazali, strictly speaking, is not saying
that the act of turning the face is 'undetermined' but rather that 'He who' is an unspecific
reference. Second, he is not saying that 'the concept of He who (mafhum alladhl) is, as such,
beyond any conceivable referent' but that the referent of this concept has no image (mithdl)
and does not have analogous correspondence (munasaba) with anything else.
63 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 1, ?29, p. 11.
64 On this subject see also the excellent studies by Lazarus-Yafeh, Studies, Appendix C:
'Some Notes on Al-Ghazzali's Cosmology', pp. 503-22; K. Nakamura, 'Imam Ghazall's
Cosmology Reconsidered with Special Reference to the Concept of jabaruf, Studia Islamica
80(1994), pp. 29-16.
65 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ??9-10, p. 27.
68 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 2, ?17, p. 29. Admittedly, the term munasaba is not used in this
passage, but the context, explaining how images are coined, suggests that this discussion
applies to cosmological images as well. The term munasaba does occur in a parallel, but more
extended, discussion of dream interpretation in al-Ghazali, Ihyd3, bk 40, ch. 8, vol. 5, p. 204,
line 5.
69 This is an allusion to the hadith 'the veridical dream is one forty-sixth part of prophecy'.
70 On the correspondence in macnd ruhdnl see al-Ghazali, Fay sal, ch. 4, in the discussion of
the five levels of existence, on the intellectual existence of the 'Hand' of God: 'wa-man qdma
cindahu al-burhan cala istihalat yad li'lldh tacald hiya jariha mahsusa aw mutakhayyala fa
innahu yuthbitu li'lldh subhdnahu yadan ruhaniyya caqliyya, acni annahu yuthbitu macna al
yad wa-haqlqatahd wa-ruhahd, duna suratihd, inna ruh al-yad wa-macnahd md bihi yabtishu
wa-yafalu wa-yucti wa-yamnacu, wallah tacald yuctl wa-yamnacu bi-wdsitat mala3ikatihi
(p. 36).
71 Notice also the striking phrase 'There can be no reference to the light of the sun but only
to the sun. Now, everything in existence relates to [God] as light relates to the sun' (al
Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 1, ?54, p. 20, lines 17-18, at the end of Passage A). The image of the
sun and its rays is used by al-Ghazali in several works (see, e.g., the reference to the Maqsad
in note 34 above), usually in implicit parallel to God and His Face: just as the sun cannot be
said to be greater than its light so also God cannot be said to be greater than His Face.
Compare e.g. the following passages on the meaning of 'God is greater' (Allahu akbar): (1)
The meaning of Allahu akbar is not that He is greater than other things, since there is nothing
else beside Him (bd vey) for Him to be greater than it, for all existents come from the light of
His existence [just as] the light of the sun is nothing but the sun and it is impossible to say that
the sun is greater than its light. Rather the meaning of Allahu akbar is that He is too great to
be known by humans through rational inference (qeyas-e caqiy (Kimiya, convdn 2, fast 8, vol.
1, p. 62, lines 17-22); (2) '[The knowers] do not understand the meaning of Allahu akbar as
implying that He is greater than something else, God forbid, since there is nothing else beside
Him (macahii) for Him to be greater than it. Anything other than He does not have the rank of
withness (maciyya) but the rank of following (tabaciyya). Moreover, anything other than He
exists only with respect to the Face adjacent to Him. Therefore only His Face exists. It is
impossible to say that He is greater than His Face. Rather the meaning of [Allahu akbar] is
that He is too great to be called "greater" in the sense of relation or correspondence (bi
macna'l-idafa wa'l-muqdyasa) and too great for another to grasp the utmost limit of His
magnificence, even be he a prophet or an angel' (Mishkdt, part 1, ?44, p. 17, lines 5-11; cf.
also Arbacin, bk 2, ch. 6, pp. 73?1).

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72 The possibility that al-Ghazali followed Avicenna in believing that God has no quiddity
other than existence has to be taken seriously. In the Maqasid, for instance, al-Ghazali says
that it is because God has no mahiyya that He cannot be known through rational inference
(qiyds) (Maqasid, p. 97, line 2ff.). Admittedly, Maqasid is an Avicennian work, largely based
on Avicenna's Ddneshndme (see J. Janssens, 'Le Ddnesh-Ndmeh d'lbn Sina: Un texte a
revoir?', Bulletin de philosophie medievale 28 (1986), pp. 163-77); however, this passage
does not seem to have a correspondence in the Ddneshndme and is, in all likelihood, al
Ghazalf s own addition. This subject requires further study.
73 Al-Ghazali himself draws a distinction between these two ways. In the first part of the
Mishkdt (part 1, ?45), al-Ghazali states that there are two ways toward the realisation that
'There is nothing in existence save God'. Some of those who see only God in existence
arrived at this realisation through a scientific cognition (Hrfanan Hlmiyyan), others - through
an experiential state (lit. 'state of tasting', halan dhawqiyyan, cf. Mishkdt, part 3, ?33 quoted
below). I prefer not to translate Hrfdn as 'gnosis', since this may be misleading. For this term
see Mishkdt, part 1, ?66, p. 24, line 10, where it obviously means 'cognition' and has no
mystical connotations.
74 Al-Ghazali, Mishkdt, part 3, ??31-3, p. 51, line 17 to p. 52, line 8. Some of the elect
among the elect (4.2), al-Ghazali continues, reach this realisation gradually like Abraham,
others instantaneously (dufatan) like Muhammad.
75 Notice the contrast between the experience of jalal here and the experience of jamdl by
the previous group (4.1).
76 Al-Ghazali, Munqidh, ?96, p. 103, line 1, 'wa-kana ma kana mimma lastu adhkuruhu /
fa-zunna khayran wa-la tas?al canVl-khabarV. The verse is by Ibn Muctazz (metre: al-basit).
11 On cilm and dhawq see, e.g., Abrahamov, 'Supreme Way', pp. 165f.; M.E. Marmura,
'Ghazali and Ashcarism Revisited', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 12 (2002), pp. 91-110, at
pp. 97ff.; R.M. Frank, 'Al-Ghazali on Taqlid: Scholars, Theologians, and Philosophers',
Zeitschrift fiir Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 1 (1991-2), pp. 207-52, at
pp. 216ff.
78 This subject will be treated in greater detail in my forthcoming PhD dissertation on al
Ghazali's metaphysics, directed by Prof. Dimitri Gutas.
79 To the best of my knowledge, this process has not been sufficiently documented and
analysed. A careful study of it would be an important contribution to the history of Sufism and
Islamic thought as a whole.
80 Al-Biruni's India was completed in 421/1030, shortly after the death of his patron
Mahmud of Ghazna. See C. Edmund Bosworth et al., art. 'Biruni' in Encyclopaedia Iranica,
vol. 4, pp. 274-87, at p. 275b.
81 Al-Biruni, Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature,
Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about A.D. 1030, ed. Edward
Sachau (London: Triibner, 1887), ch. 3, p. 16. I owe this reference to William Chittick's
article, 'Rumi and wahdat al-wujud\ pp. 104f., n. 3, where this passage is partially translated
and briefly discussed. On comparable doctrines on the Indian side see al-Biruni's discussion
in his India, ch. 2. One thinks especially of the Advaita Vedanta (not, however, mentioned by
al-Biruni). A very brief and insufficient analysis of al-Biruni's presentation of Indian monism,
in comparison to Advaita Vedanta is offered by H. Heras, 'The Advaita Doctrine in Alberuni'
in Al-Biruni Commemoration Volume, A.H. 362-A.H. 1362 (Calcutta: Iran Society, 1951), pp.
119-23.
82 The form of this term as given by al-Biruni is in fact Syriac, not Greek.
83 The 'porch' was part of the mosque in Medina, where the pious 'people of the porch'
reportedly lived at the time of the prophet. For the translation 'porch' (as opposed to the more
common but incorrect 'bench') see Lane's entry in his Arabic-English Lexicon (Beirut:

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Librairie du Liban, 1997), bk 1, pp. 1693-4: 'An appertenance of a house ... or ofa building,
like a wide bahw [...a kind of vestibule, or portico, for shade and shelter, open in front] with
a long roof or ceiling'; the suffa of the mosque of the Prophet was 'a covered place, an
appertenance of the mosque, ... roofed over with palm-sticks'. See also W.M. Watt, art. 'Ahl
al-suffa' in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn.
84 On this trend in early Sufism, see the references cited in note 38 above.

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Monism and Monotheism in al-Ghazālī's Mishkāt al-anwār / "‫الٲحديّة والتوحيد في "مشكاة الٲنور‬

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728234

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It is appropriate to begin a study on the problem of Monism versus Monotheism in

Let us now turn to the passages in question.

Passage A: Mishkdt, Part 1, ??52-43

[?52] The entire world is permeated by external visual and internal

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adjacent to Him. Indeed, the face of everything that has a face is

Passage B: Mishkdt, Part 2, ??11-15 6

[?11] Since the world of [divine] kingdom (cdlam al-malakut)

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analogous correspondence with something imperfect is also an

1. Both passages present a hierarchy of spiritual lights ascending to the First

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3. Furthermore - and this is especially striking - in both passages God is

What I propose to do in the following discussion is to consider the two perspectives

Monotheism: Commentary on Passage A

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1. The first level is purely superficial. By it al-Ghazali means enunciating the

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Those who have reached this stage are overcome in it by a state

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Mishkdt, Parti, ??37-43 Persian Letter35

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According to Avicenna, it is not to their quiddities ('whatnesses', mdhiyydt) that

2. The hierarchy of lights, emanating light upon one another, corresponds to

3. The 'borrowed' nature of existence corresponds to the fact that in Avicenna's

4. The perpetual 'perishing' of all existents corresponds to their 'possible' nature

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5. Finally, the two 'faces' of existents - directed at themselves and at God -

Furthermore, on several occasions, Avicenna claims that contingent existents, taken

[The Necessary of Existence] is sometimes also called Real (haqq),

The fourth degree of tawhid represents, therefore, an interpretation - a radical

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view. It is primarily on such passages that al-Ghazali's monistic interpretation of

Monotheism: Commentary on Passage B

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He ascends in the same manner till he reaches the [angel] whose

According to Passage B, only God Himself transcends any analogous

It might be useful, at this point, to make an excursus on al-Ghazali's theory of

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Divine mercy (al-rahma al-ildhiyya) made the world of manifestation

At this point, we need to ask ourselves how, in al-Ghazalf s view, an image

The science of dream interpretation (film al-tacbir) will teach you

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Monism and Monotheism: The Relationship Between the Two Perspectives

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Passage B, by contrast, focuses on quiddities. From this perspective, God is not

[The attainers] arrive at an Existent who transcends (munazzah)

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presence (al-hadra al-ilahiyya). Thus, with regard to them, only the

Al-Ghazali Between Philosophy and Sufism

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in the history of the progressive integration of philosophical concepts, terminology

Before the emergence of wisdom [i.e. 'philosophy', hikma] through